To write something new about Mother Teresa is simply impossible!

The greatness and holiness of her life has prompted many to research and occupy themselves with her life. So allow me to write about something little known, and a small personal experience connected with devotion to St Mother Teresa.

Although I myself am a mother of many children, I want to reflect on the theme of motherhood — on her example and on my own experience.

Mother — a word with more meanings than almost any other: happiness, gentleness, tenderness, love, care, help. Unlike us biological mothers, our Mother Teresa represents motherhood in a far deeper sense — she is a spiritual mother. She is the one who heard the word "I THIRST!" from our Saviour. And so our Mother Teresa saw in everyone her own child, that is, God's child. She would encourage her sisters like this: "Say to Jesus: 'I will be the one.' I will comfort Him, encourage Him and love Him… Be with Jesus. He prayed and prayed, and then went looking for comfort, but did not find it… I keep writing that sentence: 'I looked for comforters, but found none.' And then I write: 'Be that one.' And now, you be that person. Try to be among those who will share with Him, encourage Him, comfort Him. Let us ask Our Lady to help us understand. Be that one… Be that one who will quench His Thirst. Instead of saying 'I thirst,' say be that one…do all that you believe God is asking of you, so as to be that one who will quench His thirst.

As she said: "As for what I do, I belong to the whole world, but my heart belongs entirely to Jesus." It was her particular wish to "devote her service to the unity and happiness of family life, to the countless broken families in India and throughout the world. Precisely so that Jesus might turn those sorrowful homes into joyful ones — so that we might bring Jesus into their dark homes — the Lord wants  me and the sisters to offer our lives as a sacrifice for homes. Through our poverty, our work and our zeal we will enter every home… and reach people's hearts, in whatever country they may be found. And if the love of Jesus makes happy just one family — just one unhappy child — tell me, would it not be worth giving everything for that, all of your effort as well?"

Personally, I am a great admirer of the person and the holiness of Mother Teresa. To look upon her is to look upon a pure reflection of our Christ. Her simplicity and her wisdom from above, steeped in the working of the Holy Spirit, can leave no one indifferent. She is a courageous example who spurs us on toward holiness. That is the mark of a true mother toward her children: to teach them and raise them for Heaven.

For Mother Teresa there was no such thing as an impossible situation. She never wavered from her goal and her mission: to quench the thirst of her Jesus. Her mission was to offer "her children" the love which He, crucified, gives from the cross. She bent down to the most suffering, the poorest, the most rejected, and in them saw the face of Jesus.

Many who knew her personally say that she radiated something, yet she herself was absorbed in prayer. Mother Teresa was a "contemplative in the world". In prayer she found strength and unshakeable resolve, fervour, courage, patience and gentleness. In one letter she reveals one of the ways she prayed through the long years of impenetrable darkness: "Often, during Adoration, the faces of people I have met come before my eyes, and I remember them before Jesus. — Do for me as I do for you — remember my face before Jesus." That is all that we mothers need: to be as much as possible in the presence of God. Mother Teresa urges us: "Let us be the extended hands of Heaven".

On Mother Teresa's path there were many human obstacles at which many people would have faltered. A firm faith and simplicity, together with a great devotion to Mother Mary, worked wonders in impossible situations and hearts. In such circumstances, God's providence and care were made manifest. Our Lady is an indispensable companion, and the rosary a simple yet powerful means of living in union with her: "We were taught to love and pray the Rosary with great devotion; let us remain, above all, faithful to that first love of ours — for it will draw us closer to our Heavenly Mother. Our rule requires that we never go into the slums without first praying words of praise to the Mother; for that reason we must pray the Rosary in the streets and in the dark holes of the slums. Cling to the Rosary as a climbing vine clings to a tree — for without Our Lady we cannot hold on." Mary, who "kept all these things carefully in her heart," was her model. Just as in Mary's case, she hoped that God would intervene in his own time and in his own way.

She nurtured a special devotion to the "Miraculous Medal". She gave it constantly, on every occasion, without hesitation, even to people of other religious convictions. In this way she taught us how to take the Mother by the hand, so that she may lead us to the Son, at which point even the impossible becomes possible.

My family has a living experience of Mother Teresa's intercession. Through prayer directed to this saint, our impossible situation was turned to the glory of God. Our material situation and life circumstances were never an obstacle to our being open to life and to having children. The pregnancy with our sixth child prompted us to look for a larger home. Through fervent prayer to Heaven, and Mother Teresa's intercession, God graciously provided for the purchase of a house. What a "coincidence" it is that we moved into it on 4 September 2016, the very day our Mother Teresa was declared a Saint in the Vatican.

We often prayed the "Stormy Novena", and were heard, and encouraged in many moments of life's uncertainty. In honour of Mother Teresa, our seventh child, born on the eve of her feast day, bears the name Teresa. We are deeply convinced that our intercessor, St Mother Teresa, watches over and cares for our family with maternal devotion.